As popes before him have, he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks and end a conflict that “has lasted all too long.” And, in reflecting on the two-year-old Syrian crisis, Francis asked, “How much suffering must there still be before a political solution” can be found?

The pope also expressed desire for a “spirit of reconciliation” on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea says it has entered “a state of war” with South Korea. He also decried warfare and terrorism in Africa, as well as what he called the 21st century’s most extensive form of slavery: human trafficking.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America and a member of the Jesuit order, lamented that the world is “still divided by greed looking for easy gain.” He wished for an end to violence linked to drug trafficking and the dangers stemming from the reckless exploitation of natural resources.

Arizona is at it again. Just one month after the Phoenix City Council voted to amend an anti-discrimination law to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, Arizona lawmakers have just passed a bill that overrides some of those protections. Arizona Senate Bill SB 1045, authored by Rep. John Kavanagh (R-AZ), originally sought to make it a Class 1 Misdemeanor for transgender individuals to use a bathroom other than one that aligns with the gender on their birth certificate.

[Augustine] Carter is 85. She was born at home in Baltimore, and she never had a birth certificate. After Carter moved to the commonwealth in the 1950s, she eventually got a state ID card – she’d never learned how to drive because “the highways petrified me.”

When that card expired in 2006, the state wouldn’t renew it. The 9/11 attacks brought stricter regulations.

Carter, who spoke to me by phone from her Richmond home, told me she had to contact a genealogist, research the 1940 census and request help from the federal government. The six-year effort finally ended in 2012, when her new documents passed state muster.

There is something genuinely screwed up about a culture that would make it way easier to buy a gun than it is to vote. but I think that if I was in that situation, I might just buy a gun and point it at election officials to let me vote. Sounds like it would align with the gun nuts desire to be able to counter government tyrrany. (h/t From Pine View Farm)

Comments (14)

I forgot about this opportunity for GOP pointing and laughing — members of the House and Senate of Tennessee were concerned enough about a new mop sink to ask if it was meant for meant for Muslims to wash their feet in before prayer. Wonkette has the fun of Fear of a Mopped Planet.

Nowhere is the tea party or militia groups even discussed in the article you posted the link to. The Southern Poverty Law Centers founder Morris Dees bought a 200-acre estate appointed with tennis courts, a pool, and stables.” SPLC’s 2008 Form-990 shows net assets of over 219 million at the beginning of that year. Yup, there’s a spate to be made in the hate trade. The SPLC is nothing more than a hate mongering left wing extremist group who at one time did serve some good. Now it has become all about raising monies to support the fat cats who are running the hate group. Groups who are conducting peaceful permitted rallies protected under the First Amendment are routinely labeled terrorist groups to keep up the ever flowing donations for the SPLC coming in.

Nowhere is the tea party or militia groups even discussed in the article you posted the link to.

And the fact that you need to deflect to some bullshit you can’t even bother to provide a link too. Next time you want to criticize the fund raising of a left-leaning group, pick out two on your side and tell us how much money the Koch brothers pay you people for your foolishness.

“you people”? You foolishly assume everyone who opines about flaws on the extremist lefts beliefs must be from the other side. SPLC isn’t a left leaning group they are a left extremist group. I just choose not to let extremist groups like them or any other group define my political views. You should try doing the same thing, unbind yourself from the chains of the political bullshit at the far ends of either side.

I wasn’t bullshitting about jack shit. I could easily post links but neither you or anyone else would bother reading it. nah the only thing you all got time for is to post bullshit about people eating breakfast and bitch about people exercising their constitutional rights. At least dp doesn’t block people from posting which is more than can be said for you self professed liberals.

Ah yes, you are being victimized in advance by our not reading your links. That counts as bullshit. As does your continued avoidance of Aoine’s point. You’ve been here posting (so far) under 4 screen names, in spite of being asked to pick one name and stick with it. You’ve been given some leeway as you are new. But this is boring.

Congressman Paul Ryan was thrown out of Easter Mass today at his hometown Catholic Church because of his “unchristian” stance towards the poor.

A spokesperson for St. John Vianney’s church in Janesville, Wis. says it was enforcing a new papal order barring uncharitable politicians from participating in Catholic rites when it refused communion to Ryan and asked him to leave the building.

Ryan reportedly declined to move at first, and was escorted out by several large male parishioners and taken to his car, where he waited for his wife and children to finish the service.

“The Catholic Church believes it is society’s responsibility to care for the poor. I believe the poor are invariably lazy and should be left cold and starving until they acquire a decent work ethic. What’s the matter? We can’t even have a debate about this? It’s almost as if this new pope thinks he’s infallible or something!”

We understand that the issue of same-sex marriage is much more complex than simply forming an opinion. You need to be sure that you are politically correct, but at the same time swimming in the mainstream of public opinion. Fear not, as always the committee comes to your rescue.